Alcor member A-2067, a confidential, neurocryopreservation member, was pronounced on September 18, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona. He had been in an assisted-living facility for several years. Alcor requested a Suspended Animation-led standby on September 14. Because there was no on-call RN who could pronounce at his location in Utah, we successfully transported him from Utah to Scottsdale by air ambulance – something made possible by the availability of above-minimum funding. The member arrived in Scottsdale on the night of September 16. ICE (International Cryomedicine Experts) took over at that point. He became Alcor’s 162nd patient on September 18, 2018.

More details will be added to this case summary after review and validation.

On Monday September 17, 2018, following a series of interviews with promising candidates, Alcor offered the position of Medical Response Director to Christopher Divver. Chris accepted and began work the same day.

Chris comes to Alcor with more than 35 years of public service. Chris joined the U.S. Navy in 1990, having served overseas during the first Gulf War aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) fueling aircraft. Afterwards, Chris volunteered as a firefighter and hazardous materials technician and eventually was hired by a fire department in New Jersey, where, after 20 years of service, he retired as a company officer.

Chris has been a National Registry paramedic since 1999 and a State of Arizona certified paramedic since 2017, with proficiency in both ground and flight settings. He has a Master of Public Administration degree from Argosy University with an undergrad degree in Fire Science from Columbia Southern University. In addition to a Certified Public Manager certification from Arizona State University, Chris was the first company officer from his fire department to be accepted to and graduate from the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy—a four-year management and leadership course that examines how to exercise leadership when dealing with difficult or unique community challenges.

Chris has authored several published research papers, print and electronic magazine articles, as well as two novels. He lives in Peoria, AZ with his wife, Karen, and their two fur-babies, Clark and Ellen.

Herbert Drazen, Alcor member A-2887, a non-confidential, whole body member, was pronounced on August 13, 2018 (after an unknown amount of time before being discovered) in Pomona, New York. He became Alcor’s 160th patient that day, and arrived at Alcor for cool down on August 15, 2018.

(All times are in Mountain Time in 24-hour format.) On Monday, August 13, 2018 at 09:03 a Telemed alert was received, informing Alcor that non-confidential Alcor member Herbert Drazen of Pomona, New York had been pronounced deceased. The member lived alone in a small upstate New York community about an hour north of Manhattan.

The patient had been found in his home by a relative who had received a call from the dialysis center that the patient was late for an appointment. The police and paramedics were present at the time and they immediately released the patient as he was not considered to be a coroner’s case.

With the assistance of Alcor’s local mortician, a New York mortician was contacted and sent to retrieve the patient and pack him in dry ice as quickly as possible. Since the New York Mortician estimated that the patient had died approximately 24 hours (and perhaps considerably longer) prior to being found, it was decided by the Alcor Deployment Committee that it would not be possible to perfuse this patient. Therefore, the decision was made to pack the patient in dry ice as quickly as possible and then have him air shipped back to Alcor to be placed into liquid nitrogen. The New York mortician was very cooperative and helpful.

The patient departed JFK Airport in New York on Wednesday, August 15, 2018, at 15:06 and arrived at Phoenix, Sky Harbor Airport at 20:55. The patient was placed into cooldown at Alcor on August 20, 2018.

Ron Putirka, Alcor member A-1334, a non-confidential, neurocryopreservation member, was pronounced on July 22, 2018 in Las Vegas Nevada. He became Alcor’s 159th patient the same day.

On July 18, 2018, a close friend of Alcor member, Ron Putirka, a 73-year old man, notified Alcor that the member had been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a hospital in Las Vegas. This was due to difficulty breathing, unresponsiveness, and a diagnosis of stage IV prostate cancer with multi-system organ failure. Ron’s career as a singer started in Detroit, MI when he was a teenager. In his later years, while living part of the time in Nevada, he had sung in many nightclubs in Las Vegas.

The Alcor Deployment Committee sent Suspended Animation (SA) to the patient’s location with their mobile operating vehicle. The immediate deployment was requested as the member was declining rapidly. After a four-day standby, the member was pronounced legally deceased at 03:11 hrs. on July 22, 2018. Ron arrived at Alcor 7 hours and 15 minutes after pronouncement. Less than six hours later, the cool down process begun.